Cover not available

In:Perfects in Indo-European Languages and Beyond
Edited by Robert Crellin and Thomas Jügel
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 352] 2020
► pp. 411–434

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 12
The Gothic perfective constructions in contrast to West Germanic

 | University Zielona Góra, Poland
Published online: 23 September 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.352.12kot
Abstract
The paper deals with selected questions of ‘perfectivity’ as both aspect and tense function in Gothic in comparison with old and contemporary West Germanic languages. Perfectivity is treated as a functional category which originated in verbal aspect, but which has been re-analysed in many languages which have lost aspect as a grammatically marked opposition. In old East Germanic (Gothic), the prefix ga- originally marking terminative aktionsart was grammaticalised as the marker of perfective aspect. This is still reflected in Gothic, but lost in West Germanic. Hence, the development of perfectivity in Old Germanic is connected with the development of perfective aspect. However, in old West Germanic languages comparable prefixed compounds have already lost their aspect-marking function and could be used as general semantic modifiers of related simplex verbs. Beside the perfective-marking prefix, perfectivity also could be encoded by means of periphrastic forms, which gradually developed from aspect to tense function, so that in contemporary West Germanic languages aspectual (perfective) readings of periphrastic constructions are extremely peripheral.
Article outline
  • 1.Introductory remark on the term ‘perfect’
  • 2.The Gothic ga-compounds as viewpoint-aspect markers
  • 3.‘Aspectual-like’ prefixations vs. periphrastic constructions in Western Germanic
  • 4.Periphrastic constructions with perfective function in Gothic and their counterparts in Old Western Germanic languages
  • 5.A remark on Modern German passive constructions
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Sources
References (60)
References
Abraham, Werner. 1986. Unaccusatives in German. Groninger Arbeiten zur germanistischen Linguistik 28. 1–72.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1987. Burzio trifft Wulfila. Zu den distributionellen Eigenschaften von wairþan ‘werden’ und wisan ‘sein’ im gotischen Passiv. Groningen Papers in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics – TTT 9. 74–91.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Aspektuelle und sprecher- bzw. persongebundene Bestimmungskomponenten deutscher Modalverben. In Andrzej Kątny, Michail Kotin, Elisabeth Leiss & Anna Socka (eds. ), Werner Abraham. Schriften zur Synchronie und Diachronie des Deutschen (Danziger Beiträge zur Germanistik 44), 256–275. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Abraham, Werner & Elisabeth Leiss, eds. 2008. Modality-aspect interfaces: Implications and typological solutions (Typological Studies in Language 79). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect: An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curme, George O. 1931. A grammar of the English language, Vol. 3. Syntax. Boston: Heath.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dahl, Östen. Tense and aspect systems. 1985. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daviet-Taylor, Françoise. 1997. Die GE-Komposita im Mittelhochdeutschen: Eine zur Zeit noch bestehende Möglichkeit, eine Aussage aspektuell zu markieren. In Hervé Quintin, Margarete Najar & Stephanie Genz (eds.), Temporale Bedeutungen – Temporale Relationen (Eurogermanistik 11), 83–92. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckhoff, Hanne Martine & Dag T. T. Haug. 2015. Aspect and prefixation in Old Church Slavonic. Diachronica 32. 186–230. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fanning, Buist M. 1990. Verbal aspect in New Testament Greek. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grønvik, Ottar. 1986. Über den Ursprung und die Entwicklung der aktiven Perfekt- und Plusquamperfektkonstruktionen des Hochdeutschen und ihre Eigenart innerhalb des germanischen Sprachraumes. Oslo: Solum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guchman, Mirra M. 1964. Razvitiye zalogovych protivopostavleniy v germanskich yazykach [The development of voice oppositions in Germanic languages]. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hewson, John. 2001. Aspect and tense from PIE to Germanic. In Watts et al. (eds.), 73–82.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jones, Howard. 2009. Aktionsart in the Old High German passive (Beiträge zur germanistischen Sprachwissenschaft 20). Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kacnel’son, Solomon D. 1960. Drevneislandskiye sukcessionalnye časticy of i um [Old Islandic successive particles of and um]. In Viktor M. Žirmunskij et al. (eds.), Voprosy grammatiki. Sbornik statej k 75-letiju akademika I. I. Meščaninova, 331–344. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kątny, Andrzej. 1994. Zu ausgewählten Aktionsarten im Polnischen und deren Entsprechungen im Deutschen. Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang. 1994. Time in Language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. A Time-Relational Analysis of Russian Aspect. Language 71. 669–695. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kotin, Michail L. 2012. Gotisch. Im (diachronischen und typologsichen) Vergleich (Sprache – Literatur und Geschichte 41). Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krasukhin, Konstantin G. 1987. K voprosu o sootnošenii indoyevropeyskogo aktivnogo i srednego zaloga [On the relation between the Indo-European active and middle voice]. Voprosy yazykoznaniya 6. 21–32.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. Aspekty i vremena praindoevropeyskogo glagola II. Aorist i imperfekt drevnegrečeskogo glagola [Aspects and times of the Proto-Indo-European verb II. Aorist and imperfect of the Greek verb]. Voprosy yazykoznaniya 4. 8–36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuroda, Susumu. 1999. Die historische Entwicklung der Perfektkonstruktionen im Deutschen (Beiträge zur germanistischen Sprachwissenschaft 15). Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuryłowicz, Jerzy. 1964. The inflectional categories of Indo-European. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leiss, Elisabeth. 1992. Die Verbalkategorien des Deutschen. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie der sprachlichen Kategorisierung (Studia linguistica Germanica 31). Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maslov, Yurij S. 1959. Kategoriya predel’nosti / nepredel’nosti glagol’nogo deystviya v gotskom yazyke [The category of delimitation / non-delimitation of verbal events in Gothic]. Voprosy yazykoznaniya 5. 69–80.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1984. Očerki po aspektologii [Papers in aspectology]. Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Leningradskogo Universiteta.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meier-Brügger, Michael. 2010. Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft. 9th revised and expanded edn. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, Gary D. 2019. The Oxford Gothic grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moulton, James H. 1906. A grammar of New Testament Greek. Vol. 1. Prolegomena. 3rd edn. Edinburgh: Clark.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mourek, Václav E. 1890. Syntaxis gotských předložek. Prague: Nakl. Česká Společnost Nauk.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reichenbach, Hans. 1947. Elements of Symbolic Logic. New York: McMillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schrodt, Richard. 2004. Althochdeutsche Grammatik, II – Syntax. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schrodt, Richard & Karin Donhauser. 2003. Tempus, Aktionsart/Aspekt und Modus im Deutschen. Sprachgeschichte. In Werner Besch, Anne Betten, Oskar Reichmann & Stefan Sonderegger (eds.), Ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und ihrer Erforschung (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 2.3), 2504–2524. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smirnickaya, Olga A. 1977. Evoluciya vido-vremennoy sistemy v germanskich yazykach [The evolution of the aspect-tense system in Germanic languages]. In Viktoriya N. Yarceva et al. (eds.), Istoriko-tipologičeskaya morfologiya germanskich yazykov, vol. II Kategoriya glagola, 5–127. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smirnickaya, Svetlana V. 1966. Funkcional’noye razvitiye prefiksa ge- v nemeckom yazyke [Functional development of the prefix ge- in German]. Leningrad: University of Leningrad dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stang, Christian S. 1932. Perfectum und Medium. Norsk tidskrift for sprogvidenskap 6. 29–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Streitberg, Wilhelm. 1891. Perfective und imperfective Aktionsart im Germanischen. Paul’s und Braune’s Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 15. 70–177.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1920. Gotisches Elementarbuch. 5th and 6th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1957. Verbs and times. The Philosophical Review 66. 143–160. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watkins, Calvert. 1969. Geschichte der indogermanischen Verbalflexion (Indogermanische Grammatik 3.1). Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watts, Sheila. 2001. How to become an auxiliary: Progressive and perfect in Old Saxon. In Watts et al. (eds.), 117–136.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watts, Sheila, Jonathan West & Hans-Joachim Solms (eds.). 2001. Zur Verbmorphologie germanischer Sprachen (Linguistische Arbeiten 446). Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wedel, Alfred R. 1997. Verbal prefixation and the ‘complexive’ aspect in Germanic. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 98. 321–332.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wedel, Alfred R. & Theodor Christchev. 1989. The ‘complexive’ and the ‘constative’ aspects in Gothic and in Old Bulgarian of the Zograph Codex. Germano-Slavica 6. 195–208.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weinrich, Harald. 2001. Tempus: besprochene und erzählte Welt. 6th revised edn. Munich: Beck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
West, Jonathan. 1981. Proklitische Verbalpartikel und ihr Gebrauch in Bezug auf das verbale Aspektsystem im Gotischen. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 100. 331–338.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yarceva, Viktoriya N. 1968. Vzaimootnošeniya grammatiki i leksiki v sisteme yazyka [The relations between grammar and lexicon in the language system]. In Viktoriya N. Yarceva (ed.), Issledovaniya po obščej teorii grammatiki, 5–57. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sources
Aelfric’s Lives of Saints. 1881. Ed. by Walter W. Skeat. London: Trübner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beovulf nebst den Fragmenten Finnsburg und Valdere. 1867. New edn. with a dictionary by Christian W. M. Grein. Kassel: Wigand.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Das Hildebrandslied. 1945. Ed. by Georg Baesecke. Halle: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Der Althochdeutsche Isidor. Facsimile-Ausgabe des Pariser Codex nebst critischem Texte der Pariser und Monseer Bruchstücke. 1893. Ed. by George A. Hench. Strasbourg: Trübner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Die gotische Bibel. 1965. Ed. by Wilhelm Streitberg. Teil 1 u. 2, 4th unchanged edn. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Die Schriften Notkers und seiner Schule. 1895. Ed. by Paul Piper. Vol. III. Wessobrunner Psalmen, Predigten und katechetische Denkmäler. Freiburg i.B.: Mohr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heliand und Genesis. 1933. Ed. by Otto Behaghel. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
King Alfred’s West-Saxon version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care: With an English translation, the Latin text, notes and an introduction. Part 1. 2005. Ed. by Henry Sweet. London: Oxford University Press [reprint of 1871 edn].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muspilli. 1942. In: Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, ed. by Wilhelm Braune & Karl Helm. 10th edn. Halle: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
NLT – Holy Bible. New Living Translation. 2012. Cambridge: Tyndale House Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Otfrids Evangelienbuch. 1882. Ed. by Oskar Erdmann (Germanistische Handbibliothek 5). Halle: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tatian, lateinisch und altdeutsch mit ausführlichem Glossar. 1960. Ed. by Eduard Sievers (Bibliothek der ältesten deutschen Literatur-Denkmäler 5). Paderborn: Schöningh.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Bible. New international version. [URL] (March 3, 2017.)
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Kotin, Michail L.
2025.  Marco Bruckmeier: Aspektmarkierung im Mittelhochdeutschen. Untersuchungen zur präfixgesteuerten Perfektivierung und verbalen Paarigkeit, Heidelberg: Winter 2024, 227 S., 66 Abb. (Germanistische Bibliothek 85) . Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 147:3 ► pp. 411 ff. DOI logo
Mathys, Audrey
2021. Philologie et syntaxe comparée des états anciens du germanique. Revue germanique internationale :34 ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue